Happy October! If you’re like us, you’re happily up to your eyeballs in pumpkin spice. Between the lattes and Kit-Kats (trust us, they’re amazing), there’s a lot going on this week.

Judging by our own spending at “Tarjay,” it seems hard to believe that the retailer has ever struggled. But after slogging through its worst year since the recession, Target put together nine consecutive quarters of strong growth. Live at ANA, EVP and chief marketing and digital officer Rick Gomez shared how his team created one of the great business turnaround stories of this decade.

This month, Dewar’s is launching Caribbean Smooth—a blend of Scottish and Caribbean Flavors. “Scotribbean World” celebrates those two cultures with a pop-up bar and digital campaign, featuring Caribbean and Scottish phrases combined into new slang. (“Excuse me, bartender. Chankindem for the lads, please.”)

Ancestry has a lot of data from people looking to uncover their Scottish and Caribbean roots, among other nationalities. Data lead Jonathan Roman clues us in on how a CDP helped the company get a better view of its customers across multiple platforms.

All too often, PR is an afterthought, but that’s a huge missed opportunity. To see remarkable results, you need to make PR strategy one of the cornerstones of your marketing plan.  Read up on these 5 tips to make your strategy more effective.

Like PR, direct mail can be a tremendous win for marketers if done right. But it has to be part of an integrated mix. A new report shares which formats are performing the best for B2B marketers.

Finally, how nice are you—and why should that matter in marketing? We recently chatted with Michael Brenner about his new book “Mean People Suck” and the importance of empathy both in marketing and life in general.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to Tarjay for more Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts. Enjoy the foliage and we’ll see you next week.

Beth Negus Viveiros
Managing Editor
Chief Marketer